Jurgen Klopp has claimed that he had a easier start in the Premier League compared to new Manchester Untied boss Erik ten Hag.
The former Ajax boss arrived at Old Trafford earlier this summer and has struggled to impose his style of play on the Red Devils at the moment, losing both Premier Leagues games so far.
Klopp arrived on Merseyside and replaced Brendan Rodgers during the 2015/16 campaign and the German believes that his arrival mid-season made his transition into the English top-flight ‘easier’.
“I think for me it was easier because I didn’t come for the start of the season, we didn’t have a transfer window,” the 55-year-old said (as quoted by the Independent).
“In England people tend to say then, ‘Yeah, it’s not his team.’ So whatever I did, you would have said, ‘It’s not his team.’
“I actually thought after one day it’s my team, so I felt really responsible for all the performances from the first game. But it’s easier.
“And now, I don’t think you can really compare it, different times. My arrival is probably seven years ago – it’s a long time in football, a lot of things changed since then.
“But it’s not easy, definitely not, especially when you have to ‘rebuild’, or however they see it, but change a lot of things (in a) team. That’s not easy.”
Klopp’s side did fall to a 4-0 defeat against United during a pre-season friendly last month but the German tactician was keen to stress that his side weren’t ready for that game.
The Red Devils pressed high and with real intensity during that game but they’ve failed to carry their pre-season performances into the new season.
Brighton earned a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford on the opening weekend and then United were embarrassed 4-0 by Brentford last weekend.
Despite their slow start to the season, Klopp was keen to highlight that United still have a squad stacked with talent.
“It’s obvious what he wants to do, he wants to build up from the back,” Klopp added.
“We played them in the pre-season obviously. There, you could see and feel the high-press idea and these kind of things.
“We were, for sure, not ready for that game in the pre-season. We made some mistakes but they used them really well.
“The individual quality of United up front is ridiculous. I heard (Anthony) Martial can play probably: he played against us obviously a really good game, so another boy with technique and speed.
“(They have) football quality in midfield, whoever lines up he will have (Christian) Eriksen, (Bruno) Fernandes, Donny van de Beek, Fred and (Scott) McTominay.
“There’s real quality there and then it’s just about how we deal with that. I saw their two games and now we have to try to figure out if he (Ten Hag) will change and what he will change.
“We go from there. If we have no idea then we just have to learn it in the game.”
Our start to the season hasn’t exactly been ideal either.
We’ve got two points from six so far and will be without Darwin Nunez for three games following his red card against Crystal Palace on Monday night.
It’s now down to the XI that Klopp selects to set the tempo and put in a similar performance to our one at Old Trafford last season that saw us run away as 5-0 winners.
Joe Gomez and Bobby Firmino are expected to return to the starting line-up on Monday night with Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Joel Matip and Diogo Jota all remaining out through injury.
The post Jurgen Klopp claims Erik ten Hag’s start to life in the Premier League has been tougher than his was and warns his side about Man United’s ‘real quality’ appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.
